Tuesday, August 2, 2011

One Eventful Evening

Last evening probably rates as one of the most eventful evenings I have had in a really long time. We decided at about 4:30 pm that we would head over to see the Ogden Raptors play some baseball, after all, we had free tickets. Nothing like a free night of entertainment! The children weren't really into watching a 9 inning ballgame, I don't think they were really into watching a 1 inning ballgame to be honest. We made it to the end of the 4th, which took 1 1/2 hours. My husband, sister and I decided that was long enough. We loaded back into the cars and headed home.

My husband and oldest son wanted to drive passed the Ogden Temple which is being completely renovated, the whole design will be different when it is finished. I could see while I was driving that it is completely gutted. It was a sad sight to me, as this Temple is near to my heart. Keith and I lived right across the street from it when we got our first apartment. We would visit it as often as we could, as we didn't have many things that would keep us from going. I was pregnant with my oldest, so the only restraint for me was morning sickness. They then went to Costco to fill up the gas tank.

My sister, my two youngest children, and I headed back home, stopping only at Maverik before arriving at the apartment. We grabbed some snacks and a movie out of the Redbox. We didn't get to see very much of the movie. If the eventful evening were to stop here, I would have thought that it was still an eventful evening. Just getting 3 children to attempt to sit still at a baseball game seems eventful enough to me! But, the eventful evening continues...

It must be around 10 pm by this time. I heard a few noises outside our door. My son unlocks the front door, opens it, shuts it, and we have him relock it. Within 10 seconds, someone is turning our doorknob from the outside, trying to get into the house, using quite a bit of force. I went to the door and asked who it was, no answer. My husband comes over as things were getting more forceful. I can hear keys jingling. My husband checks the peephole. It is no one we recognize. We were telling him to go away, he doesn't belong here. He was quite insistent that he does. We sent the children to a backroom to hide. We told him if he didn't leave, we were going to call the police. He finally left, but just to the bottom of our complex stairs.

I went out onto our balcony and I could see his legs and shoes at the bottom. I asked the neighbors that are on their balcony just downstairs if that person just got down there. He had, so this indeed was our visitor. He wasn't going anywhere. I had my sister call the police. I told the downstairs neighbor what had just happened, it is a hard thing to believe, since we live in a peaceful place. The neighbor downstairs got a good look at him.

When the police arrive, we weren't about to open the door without checking who it was. My husband gave them a short version of what happened and the downstairs neighbor had agreed to give a description. They found the "visitor" quickly, talking to and patting a bush. He was still in the courtyard, which didn't make me feel good about anything. After several minutes passed, the police officers reappeared on our doorstep to give us an explanation.

The man that was trying to get into our apartment was our neighbor from diagonally across the hallway. He recently moved in. He had taken a couple of sleeping pills as prescribed and ended up going for a (sleep)walk. He was very asleep or disoriented when he was trying to get into our house. That would explain why we were hearing the sounds of keys and his insistence that he does live here. They turned the person over to his roommate who said he would make sure that he doesn't leave again. Thankfully, that is all it was. A person on his medication that was having some of the side effects that we hear about during the commercials. Also, it is good that he was located and returned to his place of residency before anything happened to him.

The eventful night finally drew to a close, but there were a few lessons we learned from it. First of all, it is in our best interest to keep our apartment door locked. Who knows how it could have ended up if the person were able to just walk in!? Second of all, it gave the children a good learning opportunity. They learned that if this ever happens again, never again would be too soon for me, to go to a backroom and hide. We told them to not come out no matter what, unless it is one of us calling them out. Third of all, it gave us a reason to go over the 9-1-1 details again, explaining to use the land phone, so the authorities would know where to come, even if the child couldn't remember the address due to stress or any other reason.